The conspiracy theorist Mike Ruppert shot and killed himself Sunday night after recording his Lifeboat Hour radio show.

His death was announced Monday night in a Facebook post by the blogger and author Carolyn Baker, who assured her followers that Ruppert’s death was “not a ‘fake’ suicide.”

“It was very well planned by Mike, who gave us few clues but elaborate instructions for how to proceed without him,” said Baker, who was a guest on the final program and will host Ruppert’s upcoming radio show in memoriam.

The 63-year-old Ruppert had previously worked as a Los Angeles police officer, and he gained notoriety in 1995 for an encounter with then-CIA Director John Deutch during a town hall meeting.

Ruppert, a former narcotics officer, told Deutch he’d seen evidence of CIA complicity in drug dealing.

He published and edited the website From the Wilderness, where he claimed the CIA and U.S. government were involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist plots.

Ruppert also covered civil liberty issues, government corruption, economics, and international politics on the site, which he discontinued in 2006.

He published the 2004 book “Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil,” which speculated that then-Vice President Dick Cheney had conspired with other government officials and Wall Street financiers in the 9/11 attacks.

Ruppert also appeared in several documentary films, including “The 911 Report You Never Saw” and “Peak Oil,” and was the subject of another, “Collapse.”

His critics say Ruppert used dubious or partial sources to back his claims.

“Conspiracy theories may seem more nuisance than problem,” wrote columnist David Corn about Ruppert’s work in 2002. “But they do compete with reality for attention. There is plenty to be outraged over without becoming obsessed with X Files-like nonsense.”

Watch this recent interview with Ruppert posted online by TheLipTV:

Collapse mastermind Michael Ruppert joins Media Mayhem to continue his conversation about the dirty secrets of the US government. This time he pulls out the big guns when discussing 9/11, the Bush administration, and why Dick Cheney was such an important (and nefarious) figure. He also gives his thoughts on President Obama, and the overwhelming force that keeps the machine of US government ticking in the direction of criminality.